


Exile

by panchostokes (badwolfrun)



Series: Prompt Fics [100]
Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Drabble, Heavy Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27101476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfrun/pseuds/panchostokes
Summary: How did Morgan's abduction at the end of season 13 change Nick and Greg's relationship? Why did Nick leave for those five episodes?
Relationships: Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes
Series: Prompt Fics [100]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540795
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Exile

**Author's Note:**

> set during early season 14, to fill the anon-given prompts “This used to be our song--” “Don’t.” and “Maybe if you actually listened to me--”

They’re sitting at the diner they always go to, the name and ownership has changed but the shitty food and homey atmosphere has remained over the years, and perhaps it’s the longing nostalgia for those times when everything made sense, felt right, that Nick and Greg find themselves with coffee and bacon and steak and eggs, and a barely functioning jukebox playing the soundtrack of their relationship...

“This used to be our song--”

“Don’t.”

Their _ruined_ relationship, that is.

Greg drops his silverware, the clatter of metal against ceramic makes Nick flinch.

“For fuck’s sake, I’m _trying,_ here, Nick! Can’t you do the same?”

“Maybe if you actually _listened_ to me--” 

“I am listening!”

“-- _don’t-interrupt-me!”_ Nick spats in low growl. “ _\--_ you’d know this ain’t something that’s gonna be fine overnight, and especially not when I’m about to leave--”

“I’m not asking for that, I know it’s going to take time, but I’m just asking for...things to go back to the way they were--”

Greg reaches a hand out, but Nick draws his away, clearing his throat and shaking his head.

“We can never go back, G. We’ve done too much to each other for that,” he gulps with the slightest waver in his voice.

Nick shimmies his way out of the booth, dropping some bills on the table

“I am sorry, if it’s worth anything to you.”

“It is. It’s worth _a lot,”_ Greg pleads with his eyes, shining, his fingers slowly approaching but Nick lifts his hand away before he can grab it, wipes his nose with the back of his fingers. 

“I’ve got a flight to catch,” Nick sniffles.

“Call me when you land?”

Nick leaves the diner without another word or signal that he would fulfill Greg’s wish, and instead severs the final tie that was holding Greg together, now isolated from everybody he thought he loved. From Morgan, who had made it _very clear_ to him that she wasn’t interested, and not in the “maybe there’s still a chance way,” but the “there’s _no chance in hell”_ sort of way. 

From Sara, who seems disappointed in Greg’s behavior, the way he’s regressed to the naïve lab rat who didn’t understand the horrors of the field, when they all know, had it been anybody else in Morgan’s place, he wouldn’t have thrown such a tantrum.

From Brass, who had always scrutinized him but remained the last mentor with the absence of Grissom and Catherine, the distant uncle who is now too lost in his own grief to offer guidance.

From Nick, who he yelled at for nearly costing Morgan’s life for the sake of a failed undercover mission though he knows that he didn’t need to; Nick was already doing a good enough job of punishing himself for more sins than just that. 

And he’s so deep in that punishment, that he’s exiling himself from the team. The _family._ From _him._

Greg curls his finger in a fist that he rests against his forehead, debating whether it’s worth it to chase after him, follow Nick into exile.

By the time he makes a decision, it’s too late. He finds himself under a cloud, a swirling dark cloud of all of his mistakes that squeezes the will out of his body, and he feels somehow more alone than the night a gang of thugs beat him within an inch of his life. 


End file.
